


Pray You Catch Me

by steggyisimmortal



Series: Shield and Gun [19]
Category: Agent Carter (TV), Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Civil War left me with too many questions regarding their relationship, Gen, Missing Scene, greedy Howard
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-01
Updated: 2018-01-01
Packaged: 2019-02-26 07:01:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13230441
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/steggyisimmortal/pseuds/steggyisimmortal
Summary: “And how is that any different from this situation?” she asked, her voice deathly quiet.They stared at one another in a stalemate.  As much as Peggy wanted Howard to stay quiet she wanted him to keep digging his grave.  It had been ages since their last real fight.  They usually blew over in a few days.  She didn’t feel the same happening to this time.  This felt worse.  Damaging.  This wasn’t just a passing idea she could talk him out of.  It wasn’t just a device he hadn’t realized had explosive properties.  It wasn’t a business deal he blew off because he didn’t like the deal on the table.This was playing god for the highest bidder.“If you don’t stop this nonsense, you’ll force my hand.”





	Pray You Catch Me

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by the lines:
> 
>  
> 
> _"You can taste the dishonesty. It’s all over your breath as you pass it off so cavalier."_

* * *

“Please tell me you’re joking.”

 

Howard barely glanced up from his scotch.  Peggy tamped down her urge to throttle him right there.

 

“I think this might be the most heinous idea you’ve ever had,” Peggy continued.

 

Howard scoffed.  “All of my ideas are sound.  It’s your judgement that’s clouded.”

 

Peggy’s nostrils flared.

 

“I’d watch what you say to me, Howard,” Peggy warned.  “I may be the only friend you’ve got left.”

 

He shifted in his chair.  He had the nerve to look annoyed.  Peggy drew a long breath, but Howard beat her to the punch.

 

“You can’t blame me for thinking of this, Peg.  It’s been on my mind for a long time.  You know it’s a good idea.”

 

“I thought you were mad all those years ago and I still do.  Nothing good can come of this.  Governments, secret organizations, mad men…”

 

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Howard waved away her concerns.  “I know your concerns but the gains could be greater.”

 

“No, they won’t.  You’re seeing this through rose colored glasses, which is something I never thought I’d say about you.” Her voice lowered.  “Or is it the color of money you seek?”

 

Howard glared at her but she didn’t back down.

 

“Does Maria know you’re thinking about this?  What would she say?”

 

He scoffed.  He lifted his feet to rest on top of his desk.

 

“No, of course she doesn’t.  She doesn’t know a lot about my work except what I do with Stark Industries.”

 

“Oh, that’s right.  I’d almost forgotten you had an _actual_ company you’re supposed to be taking care of.  It’s been so long since I’ve seen you do any work that’s useful.”

 

“Low blow, Peg.”  He tossed back the rest of his drink and rose to refill his glass.

 

“Howard, don’t you think you’ve had enough?”

 

“Not enough for this conversation,” he muttered.

 

Glassware clinked about, more than necessary.  He thought he could annoy her enough to make her leave.  She glared at his back.  He fussed with ice cubes and lids before settling on the one he was looking for.  The top fumbled to the floor, his mumbled curses following it, before he waved it off and filled his glass higher than his previous drink.  He raised the glass to his lips excruciatingly slowly.  He didn’t even bother to face her again.  He probably thought she’d get tired and leave.

 

Silence fell over the room.  Sirens ran past the high-rise building, piercing the city noise of the quiet night.  Peggy’s anger got the best of her.

 

“You are not going to recreate Project Rebirth!” Peggy yelled.

 

“Not until I find someone to try it on, no.”

 

Peggy resisted the urge to hurl her own glass across the room.  She shut her eyes and drew a deep breath.

 

“Howard, you are not doing this at all.  I would think a genius such as yourself would see the ramifications that would arise from this.”

 

He waved her off, a dismissive grimace on his face.

 

“We were afraid back then.  We didn’t think it would work.  We thought he’d die.  We got lucky with Steve.  We were supposed to create more but the plan went sideways.  Peg, we were always supposed to do this.  Why can’t you see that?”

 

“Because we’ve seen firsthand what it does to the wrong individuals,” she bit back.  “You said it yourself.  We got lucky with Steve.  What makes you think we’ll come across an army’s worth of people just like him in the blink of an eye?”

 

“Well, Erskine was successful two out of three times and he had me for the last two.  I’d be doing him a favor by continuing his work.”

 

She crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes.  She hated when he got like this.  When his word was law and he believed everything he touched turned to gold. 

 

“Careful.  You’re choking on your ego again.”

 

“My ego has nothing to do with this,” he interrupted.

 

“It has everything to do with this!” she yelled.  “You’d be dishonoring him, Howard.  I spent more time with him than you did – I almost died for that man! -  and this is not what he would want.  Not like this.  You know the answer doesn’t lie only inside the serum.”

 

“He wouldn’t want a cure for almost every disease known to man?  The common cold?  Faulty DNA restructured to produce perfect vision, a cure for deafness, stronger bodies?”

 

“And your pockets growing heavier and heavier from all the money that only you would stand to make?” she glowered.  He stared at her but remained silent.  She watched him sip at his scotch again.  “Come now, Howard, it’s not like you’re going to let anyone else in on your cash cow.  You certainly weren’t going to mention a word of it to Shield.  You wouldn’t have said anything to _me_ if I hadn’t seen your plans with my own eyes.”

 

“I would have said something eventually.”

 

“When?” she demanded.  “When it goes sideways and the US government shuts you down?  When innocent people die because your ego got in the way of your science?  You think you’re so smart, Howard, but when Erskine died he took the answer to the formula with him.  You have no more of Steve’s blood to sample either.”

 

His silence chilled her more than anything he’d said that night.

 

“Howard?”

 

He turned his back to her to stare out the window.  “I still have a vial.”

 

“You what?”

 

“I still have a vial in a secure location.  No one knows about it.  Not even Jarvis.”

 

Peggy felt like she’d been punched in her stomach.  All the oxygen fled from her body.  All these years and she thought she knew this man.  The betrayal was suffocating. 

 

“It won’t tell me everything I need to know, but between my research and his blood I think I can come close.”

 

He didn’t even have the decency to look at her.  He just kept drinking.  That’s all he ever did anymore.  She couldn’t remember the last time she’d seen him without a glass of scotch in his hands.

 

She tried a different approach before she lost her grip on her senses.

 

“Is this really the type of legacy you want to leave your son?” she asked, her voice dangerously low.  “Betraying your friends?  Your country?  The legacy of a man who had more good in one strand of hair than you do in your entire being?”

 

“Peg - ”

 

“No, Howard.” She took a few deep breaths but she didn’t feel the action calming her as it usually did.  “You don’t understand.”

 

“No, you don’t understand, Peg!”  His veracity surprised her.  He whirled around to face her.  “I have the chance to save millions with this.  My legacy will live on forever as the guy who saved humanity from damaged genetics and crippling diseases.”

 

“And how many have to die in the process, Howard?  You’ll need human trials.  How many people will line up praying they’ll finally be healed only to realize that the great Howard Stark’s research is incomplete?  How many families will have to watch their loved ones die sooner than intended?  And all so you can line your pockets.”

 

“That won’t happen - ”

 

“It will, Howard,” Peggy insisted.  “That’s why Erskine didn’t try it on every soldier in the program.  He knew the crippling, devastating effects it would have on the wrong people, on the world.  He only tried it on two people and he got lucky.  Johann Schmidt tried to match his work as best he could from memory and look what happened.”

 

“It won’t be like that.”

 

“Really, Howard?  You know that for a fact?”

 

His expression told her he knew nothing of the sort.

 

“It’ll be good for the world,” he said, his tone a little more unconvincing now.  “I’m becoming a humanitarian.”

 

“A humanitarian?” she laughed harshly.  “That’s comical even you for.”

 

“Hey, remember the reactor?”

 

“You don’t want this for the good of humanity,” she continued on, oblivious to his words.  “You stopped caring about humanity years ago.  When was the last time you actually spent time with your son?  You remember him, don’t you?  Lost young man with a smart mouth who’s the spitting image of his mother.  Does he even remember what you look like?  Would they be proud of who you’ve become, Howard?”

 

“You leave my family out of this,” he gritted out. 

 

She saw his hand tighten around the back of the chair he held onto.  She’d finally pushed a button but she couldn’t be stopped.

 

“You certainly are.  Have you considered how they’ll be affected by this if it doesn’t work the way you plan?”

 

She knew he hadn’t.  Though he’d briefly been an attentive father after Tony was born, it hadn’t been able to last long enough to help father and son form a connection.  The boy was rapidly spiraling out of control with a mother that didn’t know what to do anymore and a father that wasn’t there to even know a problem existed. 

 

She stepped closer.  She loathed even being in the same room as him.  She didn’t know what had happened to the man to make him transform so much throughout the years.  Was it his childhood?  The after effects of the war, of what he did?  Did his life not turn out the way he’d planned?  No, she couldn’t see that being the problem.  He’d grown richer than she ever could have imagined with a company that spanned the globe, taking him much further than the Lower East Side.  She’d long since given up trying to understand Howard Stark.

 

“You want this for the US government - possibly for others - to give them the army of super soldiers they’ve always dreamed of.  How much are they paying you?  It must be a lot to do something this foolish.  You don’t even have Anton Vanko here to help you whisper this... this atrocious idea in your ear.”

 

“Anton Vanko was a mistake that’s been rectified.  You know I had nothing to do with his plans.”

 

“His plans to make more money off the Russians?  Are you kidding me, Howard?  He could be your twin!”

 

“The reactor was supposed to help the world, help the energy crisis,” Howard yelled.  “Vanko went behind my back and tried selling the design to Russia.”

 

“And how is that any different from this situation?” she asked, her voice deathly quiet.

 

They stared at one another in a stalemate.  As much as Peggy wanted Howard to stay quiet she wanted him to keep digging his grave.  It had been ages since their last real fight.  They usually blew over in a few days.  She didn’t feel the same happening to this time.  This felt worse.  Damaging.  This wasn’t just a passing idea she could talk him out of.  It wasn’t just a device he hadn’t realized had explosive properties.  It wasn’t a business deal he blew off because he didn’t like the deal on the table. 

 

This was playing god for the highest bidder.

 

“If you don’t stop this nonsense, you’ll force my hand.”

 

“Into doing what?  I don’t think Maria would like that,” he tried to leer.  Peggy could see his nerves showing, though.

 

Peggy strangled a growl.  She grabbed her purse and made for the door.  She spoke as she walked.

 

“I won’t sit idly by and watch as so many hand over their hope to you only to have it be ripped away in the blink of an eye.”

 

“Peg - ”

 

“Don’t force my hand, Howard.  I guarantee you won’t like it.”

* * *


End file.
